Once and Future Love
by SaffronAngel
Summary: My take on how the one character that was missing in season seven should have been brought in.
1. Default Chapter

DISCLAIMER: Standard. Not mine. Never will be. Joss owns all.  
  
SPOILERS: Up through the beginning episodes of season seven  
  
SUMMARY: Just a little ficlet revealing the one person that was missing through the seventh season.  
  
"Let my heart call to the one I long for." Buffy heard the chant coming from her old bedroom and opened the door. "Hi, Buffy."  
  
"Getting all chanty on me, Wills?" Willow blushed and it was then that Buffy saw the Pez witch sitting on her lap and had an idea of what Willow was trying to do. "Thinking of Oz again?"  
  
"Almost constantly. I miss him so much lately. I look in the mirror and can almost see him standing behind me." The pain in her voice was heartbreaking to Buffy. "I want him here. This would be so much easier if he were here. Although . . ."  
  
"What, Will?"  
  
"What if he hates me after finding out that I killed someone? What if he leaves me again when he finds out what I did to Warren?"  
  
"Never happen." The familiar voice came from behind Buffy.   
  
Oz walked through the door and over to the bed. Willow looked at him with eyes full of tears. "I was right." The puzzled look on Buffy's face caused Willow to explain. "I told him one time. I said, 'I was waiting. I feel like some part of me will always be waiting for you. Like if I'm old and blue-haired and I turn a corner in Istanbul and there you are, I won't be surprised. Because you're with me, you know?'"  
  
Oz nodded he remembered those words. He remembered everything she had ever said to him. Especially her "I'd still" remark after they had found out that he was all wolfy and he had tried to bite her. He saw his little Eskimo peeking through again.  
  
Oz sat down on the bed. "I'm back to stay. So I'd still if you'd still."  
  
"I'd still. I'd very still." She smiled and threw herself into the arms of her once and future love. 


	2. Prelude to Meeting

SUMMARY: This part leads up to the first chapter so it's a little out of order. Sue me. This was an afterthought. Thanks to MorbidMan for giving me a bit of inspiration for this part.  
  
Oz had been playing in a bar in Mexico for several months when he saw two people that he thought he recognized walk in. He might not have ever noticed them but for the fact that they looked more out of place than he did in that bar.  
  
"Didn't you two go to Sunnydale High?" he asked walking up behind the two of them. The two young men jumped as if someone had just touched them with a cattle prod.  
  
Spinning quickly, the dark haired young man was the first one to recognize the gringo standing in front of him. "Oz? What are you doing here?"  
  
"Pretty much living. You?"  
  
"Hiding." Oz raised one eyebrow. He had always known that Jonathan wasn't exactly the bravest guy in the world but this was a stretch.  
  
Just then the blond opened his mouth. "That super-psycho-witch-bitch wanted to kill us! She killed Warren and then was going to kill us just because we were a gang with him!"  
  
"Super-psycho-?"  
  
"Witch-bitch! The one you used to date! Willow 'Darth Rosenburg'! She --"  
  
Jonathan nudged Andrew. "I think you'd better shut up now, Andrew." Jonathan had heard Oz's growl. He had never heard Oz growl before but he did now.  
  
"I should rip your throat out. No one talks about Willow that way. She may not be MY Willow anymore but I will NOT let anyone talk about her like that."  
  
Jonathan put a hand on Oz's shoulder. "Andrew has a bad case of foot-in- mouth disease. He speaks before he thinks way too often for his own good." When Oz turns to look at him, "If you want, I'll explain what happened."  
  
Oz led the two young men over to an isolated corner of the sleezy little bar. "Now what's all this about Willow?"  
  
Jonathan proceeded to tell Oz all about the past year plus that Oz had been gone. Starting with the whole story about Buffy's death and resurrection. The fact that Buffy had been pulled out of heaven. The way everything had gone after the two of them had joined up with Warren as a gang.  
  
"When we went to jail, Warren went after Buffy, he shot her and Tara. Tara was an accident. But she was still dead. Willow apparently went into the Magic Shop and drained all the books of the darkest magics. She had been addicted for a while and it wasn't hard for her to go completely over the edge. Her hair and eyes turned black. She had veins all over her face. First she pushed a bullet into his body, slowly. Then, she skinned him alive."  
  
'No! Not my Willow! Willow isn't like that. She doesn't kill people.' The thoughts screamed through his head and he shook his head. "Willow isn't like that. She doesn't kill people."  
  
"I'm sorry, Oz. She did. If it hadn't been for Xander, she would have destroyed the earth. He stopped her when Buffy couldn't."  
  
Oz didn't say another word. He just stood up and walked out the door. He got in his van and drove out of town. He pulled off the road and put his head on his arms on the steering wheel. Anyone who would have approached the van at that time would have noticed the way his shoulders shook with his sobs.  
  
#########  
  
Oz had driven straight back to Sunnydale once he got himself under control. He needed to talk to Buffy. To find out what had really happened.  
  
Knocking on Buffy's door, Oz had been nervous. He wanted to know what happened but at the same time he was scared. What if his Willow had changed so much that he couldn't even talk to her anymore?  
  
"Oz." Buffy was amazed to see the young man standing on her front steps that morning. "What are you doing here?"  
  
"I heard some things and wanted to see if they were true."  
  
"I would guess that would be things about Willow."  
  
"Pretty much."  
  
"She's in England right now with Giles. Trying to learn to control the magicks."  
  
"I heard she killed someone."  
  
"That was the magicks. Not Willow. I can't believe that Willow would have willingly done something like that."  
  
"She went to England?"  
  
"Yes. But she's supposed to be coming back tomorrow. She's going to help us with something. A demon which is skinning people."  
  
"I'll get a hotel room for now. I'll call later and let you know which one and what the number is." He turned to leave and turned back around at the foot of the steps. "Take care of her. She's all I need."  
  
############  
  
And so it was that when Willow most wanted Oz nearby he was there for her. Buffy called Oz just before she went up to check on Willow when she was trying to heal herself. Oz arrived just as Buffy headed up the stairs. She let him in and he followed her up. He listened as Willow admitted to Buffy how much she missed Oz and then he was there, holding her. 


End file.
